Patrons
of Mechanicsburg's Joseph T. Simpson Public Library will be able to "borrow"
garden seeds this spring in addition to books, becoming the area's first to
start a "seed library."

The
concept has been growing at public libraries nationwide as vegetable gardening
has surged in recent years.

Borrowers
take home seeds at no charge, grow their crops over the summer and then save
and return some of the seeds at season's end for the following year's lending.

Simpson
Library, part of the Cumberland County Library System at 16 N. Walnut St.,
Mechanicsburg, will bring the idea to central Pennsylvania starting Sat., April
26.

Rebecca
Swanger, the library's adult services librarian and volunteer coordinator, says
there's no checkout fee for people who live in areas served by libraries that
are funded by a library tax (which is most of the Harrisburg area).

Residents
can get a Simpson Library card by showing a photo ID and proof of current
address.

Those
who live in "unserved communities" (i.e. no library tax) can still get a card
and "borrow" seeds, but the card fee is $5 a month.

The
lineup also includes four kinds of tomatoes, three varieties of cucumbers, four
varieties of beans, three varieties of lettuce, plus oregano, basil, parsley,
bell peppers and beets.

Swanger
commandeered an old wooden card catalog that's to be repurposed into the seed
library station.

View full sizeThe seed library features heirloom vegetable varieties, labeled with growing instructions and a rating of how hard or easy each variety is to germinate.Rebecca Swanger

"The
seeds will be in larger envelopes that will be stamped with growing
information," she says. "We'll have smaller envelopes there that people can use
to put in what they want to take home."

The
library will log what people take, similar to checking out a book.

"We're
asking that people pledge to bring some seed back, either by saving some of
what they grow or by donating seeds they buy," Swanger says.

There
won't be any late fees or other penalties for failing to do that, though.

All
seeds will be heirloom varieties – ones that produce true to form year after
year as opposed to variable or sterile hybrids.

"We're
also asking that they preferably be organic," Swanger adds.

Volunteers
will be recruited to clean, sort and label the seeds each year.

Chris
Edenbo, the gardener in charge of South Middletown Twp.'s Diakon Wilderness
Center Greenhouse, has agreed to help with information, growing out some of the
seeds and rating the "difficulty level" of each seed type.

"Depending
on how this works out," says Swanger, "we have another card catalog that we can
use to add ornamentals."

The
seed library kicks off April 26 – the day of Mechanicsburg's Earth Day Festival
– with a seed swap between 10 a.m. and noon that day.